Catastrophic frame deconstruction without warning

I've been reading a lot of posts about riders crashing their bikes and then feeling concerned about the said crashed bicycles frame integrity...

Has anyone on this forum ever had first hand experience of a ( previously crashed ) frame falling apart while riding? Or is ( as I suspect ) the catastrophic frame deconstruction just a theory?

Just wondering, as I've crashed a few bikes. lol.

Scherben bringen Glück.

:)

what tha?

I had an old Lemond that I bought off a forumite. Had a nasty prang where I rode into the back of a post van because I was distracted by some woman in a Jaguar who was beeping me and buzzing my back wheel. A couple of weeks later, I heard an odd 'ping' on the way home and made a mental note to check it out. Setting off from the next lights, the headtube separated from the rest of the bike and I fell on my face. Was quite glad it had happened from stationary and not going downhill.

I hope that story is true.

Are you going to draw all stories of frame disintegration?

Ooh, I was about to call out a lack of excrement, then spotted it. Top marks!

^ haha brilliant :)

Scherben bring gluck means...shards bring luck. In some countrie such as Germany (at least in Nord of Germany as friend of mine told me this) they still thrash plates/soup bowls etc on weddings to wish happiness on the couple.

#csb

Mainly I'm interested in frame integrity, the left over interest is in laughing. As we are going with German sayings - schadenfreude style. Upon reflection, it's probably the other way around.

I still don't quite understand the shards bringing luck thing...

^ haha brilliant :)

Scherben bring gluck means...shards bring luck. In some countrie such as Germany (at least in Nord of Germany as friend of mine told me this) they still thrash plates/soup bowls etc on weddings to wish happiness on the couple.

#csb

It means, of course, that shards cause good luck. :)

Search for "Polterabend" and you'll see. (Traditionally, on the eve of a wedding, or indeed nowadays at any time before the wedding, couples broke their old crockery. This was perhaps to symbolically usher in a completely new household with new crockery. I don't know, as fortunately this custom has never been observed in my family or by any friends who got married--the custom of a stag do has instead become much more widespread.)

oh... ok it's starting to dawn on me. The bike, after it falls to pieces - then causes good luck. Sorry, I missed that... that's a refreshingly positive outlook - I'm a pessimist deep down so that perspective went completely over my head.

Maybe some people think the shards of the bicycle rider bring good luck...? :P

Well, once your bike is in pieces, it's unlikely to cause you further damage and you might elect not to ride a failing piece of shit in the future.

oh... ok it's starting to dawn on me. The bike, after it falls to pieces - then causes good luck. Sorry, I missed that... that's a refreshingly positive outlook - I'm a pessimist deep down so that perspective went completely over my head.

Obviously, it's a bit of a stretch to think of a bike as falling to shards instead of fragments. Likewise, in German you wouldn't really say that a Fahrrad broke into Scherben.

It still seems anecdotal that a frame shouldn't be ridden after a crash... surely there are more people who have actually had a frame disintegrate under them.

You have to be especially careful if you ride a ceramic frame, of course.

Never go near German weddings on a ceramic framed bike

No, the weddings themselves are fine--it's the Polterabende that are the problem. :)

Weddings always are the problem.

My 'Nago Master Piu was crashed in it's previous life, I bought it and rode it. One day i was pushing really hard up a hill and the frame started to modulate/vibrate/shake in a strange way, I have heard this happens often before frame failure so I chose to deconstruct said bike and will be getting rid of the frame (didn't help that i completely broken and dislocated my ankle while riding this bike).

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Maybe a frame builder can assess and price a repair if possible?

Will still be pricey alas as rebrazing cooks paint...

Cross post from draw your own collision thread

Brilliant!

FWIW, I hit the post van on Clerkenwell Rd just before St John St, then the bike gave up the ghost on Hackney Rd. Was about three years ago now I guess.

will be getting rid of the frame

Dibs as wall art for my lawyer loft.

All I need now is to qualify as a lawyer and buy a loft.

OK, so it seems that there is a bit of evidence that bikes do fall apart after crashes... The down tube and top tube sound to be the main culprits. I had an old bike that I rode for a couple of years after a crash with a bent down tube and missing 5 spokes on the front wheel.

Anyone had a frame with a warped rear triangle that fell apart?